That’ll cover up for the fact they’ve gone from menacing to mediocre on defense in three years under Rex Ryan. That’ll make the needed upgrades on offense that include, in no particular order, a better running back, a playmaking receiver, a right tackle and a coordinator who can stop the quarterback from throwing passes to opposing defensive linemen.

This is the bunk the Jets were trying to sell their fans today at their end-of-season wrap-up: Those painfully obvious deficiencies that any fan can see from the upper deck? They can all be solved with better team unity.

You can almost picture Ryan beginning next season’s training camp in Cortland, N.Y., with a trust-building exercise.

If the season-ending loss to the Miami Dolphins was a three-hour assault on your senses, today’s post-mortem press conference was the counterattack on your intelligence. Ryan’s sudden ban of team captains was the ultimate knee-jerk attention grabber designed to distract from the real problems.

Ryan had a responsibility, and a forum, to at least condemn Santonio Holmes for quitting on the Jets in the season finale. Instead, he and general manager Mike Tannenbaum spent more time apologizing for their $45 million receiver, with Ryan then insisting the mistake was not naming Holmes captain, it was naming captains, period.

“To be honest with you, that is something I think I made a huge mistake on,” Ryan said, adding that he’s suddenly against naming captains because “that recognizes individuals and not the team.”

Somewhere, Mark Messier and Derek Jeter just spit up their coffee. The Jets don’t need fewer leaders, they need better ones. Ryan acted surprised at the rifts on his team today, as if they didn’t fill the sports pages in October the first time Holmes ripped the team’s offensive line.

The Jets lack leaders because, over the past two years, they’ve cast aside the likes of Thomas Jones, Jerricho Cotchery, Damien Woody, Tony Richardson and others. But even focusing on that ignores the real issues with this team.

Forget chemistry. The Jets are 8-8 because they weren’t good enough. This has all the warning signs of a team in decline — an aging roster with an overall lack of speed, depth and young replacements.

Cruz had 82 catches for 1,536 yards and nine touchdowns, probably the greatest season for a receiver in Giants history. If the Jets’ locker room was “filled with those types of guys,” as Tannenbaum boasted, then the coaching staff has bigger issues than Brian Schottenheimer’s play calling.

Which, of course, remains unresolved. Four teams made significant coaching changes today, the day typically known as Black Monday. The Jets vowed that Schottenheimer will be back in his current role as offensive coordinator as long as he’s not hired as a head coach elsewhere.

So the Jets are counting on the Jacksonville Jaguars or some other misguided team to solve this problem for them. And if the Jags hire someone else? Could the Jets really enter next season with the same coordinator calling plays for the same regressing quarterback?

Tannenbaum, who oddly was the one making the guarantees, promised that Mark Sanchez would be the starting quarterback next season, saying “Mark’s work speaks for itself — it’s more good than bad and far from perfect.” Sanchez looked shell shocked in the loss to the Dolphins, like a player who had completely lost his way in the final three weeks of the season.

At least the quarterback stood up and answered every difficult question, unlike many of his teammates. Holmes was escorted out of the building by the PR staff without talking to the media. Bart Scott, who couldn’t wait to do his pro wrestling shtick during the good times, gave a photographer the middle finger. Even Darrelle Revis, usually a standup guy, blew off reporters.

Chemistry is an issue, but it’s hardly the biggest one. Tannenbaum has to make major changes, through the draft and free agency, to make this team more young and athletic on defense and more dangerous on offense.

No team captain can solve those problems. Neither, for that matter, will having no team captains.

Rex Ryan talks about Santonio HolmesNew York Jets head coach Rex Ryan discusses Santonio Holmes, his play with the team over the past two years, and that he thinks he'll be back with the team (Video by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger)